


Rome

by wolftrapvirginia



Category: Hannibal (TV), Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: Dialogue, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-08-22
Packaged: 2018-03-20 10:31:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3646986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolftrapvirginia/pseuds/wolftrapvirginia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Psychiatrist on the run and a cyberterrorist find themselves enjoying a candid conversation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Rome, a small traditional cafe near Piazza Navona.

Light rain.

 

 

_HANNIBAL LECTER is sitting at a small table across from SILVA. HANNIBAL LECTER is dressed in a black leather jacket over a sweater, SILVA is wearing a dark-red raincoat. Both are drinking espresso from traditionally tiny Italian cups._

 

SILVA: I like coming here. The coffee is superb.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Italian espresso is a cure to many illnesses.

SILVA: One of my friends is a patient of yours.

HANNIBAL LECTER: He sings you praises. It’s nice to finally meet you. 

SILVA: Do you mind if we just talk? Therapy invokes negative memories in me.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Not at all. So what is it that you do?

SILVA: I'm a tradesman of sorts.

HANNIBAL LECTER: But not in the traditional sense. 

SILVA: Manipulation of stocks, overthrowing governments, rigging elections. Uncovering deeply hidden secrets.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Like the Angel of Death, you are the deliverer of truth, no matter how terrible it can be.

SILVA: (grins) Perhaps.You know your way around the Bible, Doctor.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Religion often takes place in lieu of a realible parental figure.

SILVA: I’ve always been a good Catholic boy.

HANNIBAL LECTER: God is an unstable role model in his own right. I collect church collapses; last Wednesday, a roof fell onto a group of worshippers in Texas. No survivors.

SILVA: You won't go to church if you hadn't sinned.  

HANNIBAL LECTER: And yet some don't bother to come.

SILVA: That is very true. Yes. 

HANNIBAL LECTER: I was told you are a firm believer in revenge, rather than God.

SILVA: Righteousness. Not revenge.

HANNIBAL LECTER: I have a friend with similar views on what's righteous. He's a federal agent with a very particular gift of empathy...

SILVA: (laughs) What a terrible combination.

HANNIBAL LECTER: I believe these days he's leaning more towards behaviorism. 

SILVA: He's important to you. I can tell.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Why do you say that?

SILVA: the way you distinguished him from everyone else. 

HANNIBAL LECTER: Is there someone who is important to you?

SILVA: (looks away) People tend to, don’t they.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Someone you distinguish from the entire world. Is he a deliverer of truth too? 

SILVA: He is quite difficult to ascertain. Perhaps your federal agent friend could.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Neither of us has mentioned our beloved's names. Neither of us desires to give any more ground to their owners.

SILVA: There is not enough ground to give in my cemetery.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Has he tried to kill you?

SILVA: Quite successfully. 

HANNIBAL LECTER: Murdered another idea of you; the vast abyss between what is and what could have been. 

SILVA: I gave him a choice. Thought someone who is always led would enjoy that luxury.

HANNIBAL LECTER: No space left between the two of you, he got too close. The proverbial Icarus to the sun.

SILVA: Speaking from experience, Doctor?

HANNIBAL LECTER: Do you forgive him?

SILVA: No one has asked me.

HANNIBAL LECTER: What if he was here right now, in this cafe, at a table before us. Would you?

SILVA: He has the most azure blue eyes, have I mentioned? Have you ever jumped from a small cliff right into the water beneath? That’s the color the water has. 

HANNIBAL LECTER: Exciting, but dangerous.

SILVA: And predictable. I knew what he would do from the start, and yet I’ve tried anyway.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Hope is harder to eradicate than any other emotion. Those who have survived a suicide attempt often recall their last thought being that of hope. 

SILVA: The traumatized are the most dangerous beings. We know we can survive.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Now you are surviving your hope.

SILVA: I got obsessed with the idea that we were alike. And we were, to an extent. But I have underestimated the levels of his adherence to his flag and the desire to always be the good boy.

HANNIBAL LECTER: We often forget that our influence can only reach so far. What proceeds us in their life could prove a much more powerful force.

SILVA: Do you forgive your agent?

HANNIBAL LECTER: I have. Tell me about your first meeting. 

SILVA: Ah, just like the movies. A dashing hero, a tropical island. GPS trackers, rope, guns, helicopters. I’ve always been a fan of drama.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Rope?

SILVA: What good hunter lets its prey get away?

HANNIBAL LECTER: You let him believe you are the one in control.

SILVA: Something like that. It was only a game. What was your first meeting like? 

HANNIBAL LECTER: The mongoose wondered under the house while the snakes slivered by.

SILVA: Did you pretend to not be one of the snakes?

HANNIBAL LECTER: You’re perceptive.

SILVA: I prefer to read between the lines. Makes it faster.

HANNIBAL LECTER: What was between his lines?

SILVA: Anger. A dash of desire. He is used to fucking everything that moves, though, so I tried not to take that personally.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Attachments do not come easy.

SILVA: His parents died when he was eleven. 

HANNIBAL LECTER: You’re attracted to his damage. 

SILVA: I thought it made us alike.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Being alike can be a curse. Mirrors can reveal features better kept hidden.

SILVA: What happened when he revealed you as one of the snakes?

HANNIBAL LECTER: We have turned over a new leaf.

SILVA: But he betrayed you.

 

_Pause._

 

HANNIBAL LECTER: He has betrayed himself. 

SILVA: But you are just alike. Revealed a few features better kept hidden?

HANNIBAL LECTER: I’ve tried very hard to. 

SILVA: For his own sake?

HANNIBAL LECTER: A flower is only a flower when it opens all its petals.

SILVA: I almost envy you. 

HANNIBAL LECTER: He was trying to catch me all the while.

SILVA: Doesn’t mean he didn’t entertain the thought. My grandmother always said, A **mucha hambre, no hay pan duro.**

HANNIBAL LECTER: You’re defending him. Is it his defense or one for your dashing hero with azure eyes?

SILVA: He is beyond defending.

HANNIBAL LECTER: For a believer in the righteousness, forgiveness is scarce.

SILVA: Three months in a hospital can do wonders to one’s clarity of mind.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Yet you still desire to be clouded.

SILVA: Can't deceive someone who is not willing to be deceived, Doctor Lecter.

HANNIBAL LECTER: I gave consent to my own blindness.

S (nods)

HANNIBAL LECTER: Did you believe you could change him?

SILVA: Of course not. But I thought it was already there, all I had to do was to wake it up.

HANNIBAL LECTER: You touched a snake who ended up biting you.

SILVA: Naturally.  

HANNIBAL LECTER: I killed someone close to him. Do you think that’s forgivable?

SILVA: My advice loses its relevance at this point, as I am sitting at a cafe with you and not sailing a yacht in my lover’s arms. No offense.

HANNIBAL LECTER: So it is not your forgiveness we were talking about, it is his. 

SILVA: Can’t it be both? I too can be a snake.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Relationships can be mutually destructive...

SILVA: Surely an empath can forgive you murder?

HANNIBAL LECTER: And a few attempted murders?

SILVA: Well, you implied his betrayal was the precursor.

HANNIBAL LECTER: I don’t hear many notes of judgment from you.

SILVA: I’m a cyber-terrorist, Doctor Lecter, not a hypocrite. 

HANNIBAL LECTER: But not completely devoid of emotion. When you talk of him, your irises dilate.

SILVA: Big difference between wanting and needing.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Just wanting?

SILVA: I like achieving goals I set. I’m obsessive that way.

HANNIBAL LECTER: It is not physical want you talk of.

SILVA: Physicality is dull. 

HANNIBAL LECTER: Wanting a part of his mind?

SILVA: Do you share the fantasy?

HANNIBAL LECTER: I was intrigued by how I could never control his mind. Will’s mind.

SILVA: William. The Conqueror.

HANNIBAL LECTER (smiles): Seemingly.

SILVA: My fantasy also carries a Christian name, but prefers to go by the assigned number. Imagine that.

HANNIBAL LECTER: A government-authorized machine. 

SILVA: He’d like that.

HANNIBAL LECTER: But you were the one to see the human side.

SILVA: Thought I saw. Past tense.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Humans are also killers. Perhaps he killed you so that you wouldn’t get too close.

SILVA: He did what he always does. What is expected.

HANNIBAL LECTER: And you wanted to be the exception to the rule.

SILVA: Didn’t you?

HANNIBAL LECTER: I wanted to open his eyes to the truth. That he was born to hunt.

SILVA: And now he’s hunting for you.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Because it is what is expected.

SILVA: Did you write to him? 

HANNIBAL LECTER: Mostly postcards. But I rarely send them.

SILVA: I send untraceable text messages. 

HANNIBAL LECTER: Undoing his sense of reality. A simple reminder.

SILVA: Keeping him on his toes. He’s here now, in Rome, by he way.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Gracing the rainy streets with azure eyes.

SILVA: And terrible turtlenecks. I have a detail on him, twenty-four-seven.

HANNIBAL LECTER: My therapist would consider that obsessive.

SILVA: I tell myself that it’s for his own sake.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Is it more for yours?

SILVA: Do you know where William the Conqueror is?

HANNIBAL LECTER: Florence. He’s looking for me.

SILVA: Consider yourself lucky. You’re being searched for.

HANNIBAL LECTER: It’s hard for you to let things go. Do you tend to get things that fall within your spectrum of want?

SILVA: Guilty as charged, dear.

HANNIBAL LECTER: And you want him.

SILVA: Lord help me.

HANNIBAL LECTER: Perhaps you should tell him?

SILVA: I’m not so keen on getting shot in the head. 

HANNIBAL LECTER: We rather share that desire. Well, I should go. It’s getting dark and I still haven’t visited the bookstore I had seen on the way.

SILVA: Of course. Same time next week?

HANNIBAL LECTER: It would be my pleasure. 

 

 

 

 


	2. Florence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A warm oak bar, two agents accidentally running into each other and sharing poisons.

WILL GRAHAM

You know your whiskey.

 

JAMES BOND

Mm?

 

WILL GRAHAM 

 This place was founded in the 1600s, and ever since they've been bringing in more and more rare collections.

 

JAMES BOND 

And here I thought I was just thirsty.

 

WILL GRAHAM

Gold Macallan, 1824 Series? Must be positively dehydrated.

 

JAMES BOND  
_(smiles)_  


Last time I had this conversation with someone it didn't end well.

 

WILL GRAHAM

Unfortunately I am well versed in with bar fights

 

JAMES BOND

It was more of a bet. What's your poison?

 

WILL GRAHAM 

_(nods at the bottle)_

 

JAMES BOND

Rye. How truly American. _(to the barman)_ We'll have two glasses of George Dickel.

 

WILL GRAHAM

Hard to escape old habits, I guess. Mr...?

 

JAMES BOND

James is perfectly acceptable. I've already bought you a drink.

 

WILL GRAHAM

Will, then. And thank you, it's quite a drink. 

 

JAMES BOND

 Enjoying the city so far?

 

WILL GRAHAM

 Never thought Italy can be this hot this time of year. Was that presumptuous? 

 

JAMES BOND

Good for pleasure, bad for business. Should we get a bottle, Will?

 

WILL GRAHAM

I passed my limit three drinks ago. 

 

JAMES BOND

 You don't show it. 

 

WILL GRAHAM

I'll assume you aren't here to stroll down cobblestoned streets.

 

JAMES BOND

What gave me away? 

 

WILL GRAHAM

Is this an honest conversation? Or the one people always tend to have in these types of joints?

 

JAMES BOND

I would always pick honesty given the chance, Will.

 

WILL GRAHAM

Then we both know none of us are here on vacation.

 

JAMES BOND

 Does it matter? I always try to find pleasure even in the dullest matters

 

WILL GRAHAM

Pleasure is relative. When a fly gets into the web, the spider feels pleasure.

 

JAMES BOND

Not very found of commonly exchanged pleasantries, are you? 

 

WILL GRAHAM

You could say that.

 

JAMES BOND

What made you think I'm not on vacation?

 

WILL GRAHAM

I have an affliction of empathy.

 

JAMES BOND

Must come very useful.

 

WILL GRAHAM

I'm sure you can understand, as we occupy very similar social positions? 

 

JAMES BOND

How so?

 

WILL GRAHAM

Seeing that I'm FBI, and you are obviously an agent of a British equivalent of it.

 

JAMES BOND

FBI?  You could've fooled me.

 

WILL GRAHAM

Pay no attention to the droopy clothes. I used to just teach before I began chasing spiders.

 

JAMES BOND

What else did you surmise of me in such a short time?

 

WILL GRAHAM

Someone who is emotionally unavailable, but frequents bars like this. I can also tell you enjoy a chase. 

 

JAMES BOND

To the spiders, then. Where would we be without them.

 

WILL GRAHAM

_(shivers)_

God only knows where I would be without the webs they weave.

 

JAMES BOND

Did you end up catching your spider?

 

WILL GRAHAM

To my detriment. 

 

JAMES BOND

Did the end not justify the means?

 

WILL GRAHAM

He got away, but not before leaving me with a smile. 

_(briefly traces the scar over the clothes)_

 

JAMES BOND

 Are you absolutely dead-set against trying the Macallan, Will? I really shouldn’t finish the bottle.

 

WILL GRAHAM

Please, do not let my scarring deprive you of the pleasure.

 

JAMES BOND

My pleasure would be to have it shared with you. And he who fights monsters, as you know.

 

WILL GRAHAM

One must take care not to become one. Except I have glazed into that abyss like it was a mirror.

 

JAMES BOND

Perhaps, it was.

 

WILL GRAHAM

Seems you know of monsters first-hand. And not just professionally.

 

JAMES BOND

Is there any other kind?

 

WILL GRAHAM

In the FBI manuals they teach to separate professional from personal with a concrete wall, but reality tends to sweep through. Have you noticed?

 

JAMES BOND

I don’t stop long enough to think about that.

 

WILL GRAHAM

But your spider made you think of it. 

 

JAMES BOND

What makes you think so?

 

WILL GRAHAM

My empathy wasn’t a line, Agent.

I would apologize, but I’d have to have to apologize over and over. 

 

JAMES BOND

No need. What makes you draw lines between professional and personal?

 

WILL GRAHAM

Amount of blood spilled?.. I watched him take me apart, brick by brick, and I allowed it. Whatever the professionally of my reasons, this cannot be hidden behind the veil of a job.

 

JAMES BOND

He sounds dangerous. Manipulative.

 

WILL GRAHAM

I can’t to this day say how much I had control over, and how much his influence worked to overpower my safety controls.

 

JAMES BOND

I may not be privy to details, but it sounds you made the right choice, Will.

 

WILL GRAHAM

I… wanted to run away with him. 

 

JAMES BOND

But you _did not_.

 

WILL GRAHAM

At that point, fate was out of my hands. 

 

JAMES BOND

Perhaps, it always was? 

 

WILL GRAHAM

Not with him. Mountains were my bridges.

 

JAMES BOND

Illusion is always better than reality. 

 

WILL GRAHAM

The illusion was a far more potent poison than any daily cure.

 

JAMES BOND

There is no attraction in the damage. It’s just damage, dressed in nicer clothes.

 

WILL GRAHAM

You weren’t tempted?

 

JAMES BOND _(laughs)_  


I’m always tempted. Never say ‘no’ to adventures, or you’re bound to live a very dull life.

 

WILL GRAHAM

Dullness is certainly not one of my worries. How did that adventure end?

 

JAMES BOND

The way most things end for me. He came to kill me, so I killed him first. 

 

WILL GRAHAM

Did it bring relief? Did it stop you from wishing you could join a universe made of darker matter?

 

JAMES BOND

I didn’t kill a part of me that responded to the idea. 

 

WILL GRAHAM

I can’t grasp if that part was there before the spiders, all along, or was inserted. 

 

JAMES BOND

You should forgive yourself. 

 

WILL GRAHAM

For not running away? Or for wanting to?

 

JAMES BOND

For both. 

 

WILL GRAHAM

Are you familiar with the quantum physics interpretation of many worlds? All that can happen, will happen.

 

JAMES BOND

That implies a possibility of a world where you have never met your spider. Where this bar does not exist, where he is not damaged, and your stomach is not riddled with scars.

 

WILL GRAHAM _(adding)_  


And my head with regrets. 

 

JAMES BOND

Stories like this.. They read better than they are lived.

 

WILL GRAHAM

If he came to you… right now. 

 

JAMES BOND

I am sure what could happen would happen. There are versions of many dead bodies, there are other versions. 

 

WILL GRAHAM

I’ve never known myself better than I’ve known myself with him. I should be going, I’m way past my alcoholic limit. 

 

JAMES BOND 

I’ll walk you to your hotel.

**Author's Note:**

> A mucha hambre, no hay pan duro - For strong hunger there is no bad bread. (Spanish proverb)


End file.
